243 THE UNEXPECTED RETURN OF
"Looking for Kryptonite, boy?"
The instant the words landed, Sorrow's eyes spasmed violently. His thoughts were cut off mid-stream, severed by an unseen force.
"What… what's happening to me?!" he roared.
His killing blow froze inches from its target. His muscles locked and his power stalled. An unnatural paralysis seized his body.
From the fractured ground below, Mortuum gazed up, satisfaction curling his lips.
"A Super Soldier," he sneered. "Then feel my Kryptonite."
Damen understood at once.
The psychic opening he had been praying for hadn't come from his own awakening—but from Mortuum, one of the Alliance of Psyche's elite.
Paralysis.
Even a Rank 6A Super Soldier couldn't resist it.
Damen didn't hesitate.
He shut down every nonessential core, channeling everything into plasma. This was his absolute limit—an attack powerful enough to kill an S-Rank.
"Halo's Judgment."
But even that wasn't enough to stop Sorrow.
His innate body armor still held—damaged, but formidable—hovering around Rank AAA. Layered atop it was his reinforced soldier armor, amplifying his defense two… perhaps threefold.
Even Damen's strongest attack wouldn't be enough.
There has to be something else, Damen thought, his gaze sweeping the battlefield as his Core of the Mind processed possibilities at blinding speed.
Then he saw it.
In a burst of speed, Damen lunged forward, seized Sorrow, and shot into the sky.
"Bang—Kaboom!"
A distant warship fired its main cannon.
The shot had been meant for the Meat Heap forming below, a mass of resistance rising within the city.
Damen twisted midair and shoved.
Sorrow was thrown directly into the cannon's path.
"Arghhh!" Sorrow screamed as Mortuum's psychic grip shattered. His eyes cleared just in time for horror to register. "What the—?!"
The blast struck him head-on.
Light consumed the sky.
Damen stabilized himself and immediately scanned the result.
Sorrow's armor readings plummeted.
His innate body armor—was down by half.
Now that's more like it.
He didn't hesitate.
Damen shut down every nonessential core and rerouted everything into plasma. His chest ignited, silver light spiraling outward as a concentrated beam erupted forth, swallowing Sorrow in roaring flames.
"No… not another—!" Sorrow screamed as the plasma strike slammed into him.
His body was blown out of the sky.
"Damn it—my strongest attack is already Rank 5A," Damen growled in disbelief. "Why is he still alive?"
Then it clicked.
Resistance.
Sorrow had the same advantage Damen did—natural resistance to electricity and plasma. Energy attacks would never reach full effectiveness against him.
Damen dove after his falling enemy.
Before Sorrow could even hit the ground, a second Halo's Judgment fired, once again drowning him in searing plasma. The blast cratered the earth and sent shockwaves racing through the ruins.
This time, something shattered.
Sorrow's innate body armor collapsed completely.
Now.
"One more strike would end it," Damen vowed.
The tide of battle had fully turned. Mortuum's arrival had changed everything.
"I have to kill him now," Damen said coldly. "If Sorrow recovers… I'm dead."
He released his third—and final—shot.
The beam struck the ground like a miniature sun, detonating in a violent bloom of plasma and heat. The earth buckled, vaporized, and split apart.
"That should do it," Damen muttered as he descended slowly, exhaustion flooding his body.
Then the smoke began to clear.
And his blood ran cold.
Sorrow's body was gone.
"What… how did he escape?" Damen whispered.
He activated his location tracker instantly.
The signal flared to life.
Sorrow was fleeing.
And he was moving fast.
"Damn it! How did he break Mortuum's paralysis and escape?" Damen snapped, spinning back toward him."Mortuum—you should've held that bastard longer!"
There was no response.
Mortuum stood perfectly still.
…Too still.
"…Wait. Something's wrong."
Damen rushed to his side—and then he saw it.
Mortuum was dead.
A single, precise shot had pierced the back of his skull. There was no struggle and no warning.
"No… Mortuum," Damen whispered. "A psychic like you… taken out by a drone?"
He scanned the distance, his systems flaring as he searched for a trace of Sorrow.
Sorrow was gone.
And without Mortuum's psychic suppression, pursuing him now would be suicide.
"Damn it…" Damen growled. "He got away."
His gaze fell back to Mortuum's body—his eyes still open, frozen in surprise, never even realizing what had killed him.
The assassin was already long gone.
"Damn it," Damen muttered as he phased Mortuum's body into his private space.
Something about the death didn't sit right.
Mortuum's death wasn't because of the battlefield chaos. It was an execution.
"We'll deal with this later," he said coldly. "After a proper autopsy."
At the horizon, the sky darkened.
Hundreds of drones surged into view—black specks multiplying until they blotted out the light itself. They swept over the city in ruthless formation, their purpose unmistakable.
It was extermination.
More warships tore through the cloud cover, their hulls splitting open as they disgorged drones and strike craft like a spreading plague.
Only then did Damen accept the truth.
Liberty City was already lost.
He switched his scanner to Sienna's signal, watching it move steadily away from the city limits.
"Good," he murmured. "She'll make it out safe."
The tightness in his chest eased—just a little.
Then he changed the locator.
"Kail," Damen said softly, resolve locking into place. "I'm coming."
------
While Mortuum went above to aid Damen, the remaining psychics descended to the platform.
"What happened up there?" Sienna asked as they regrouped.
"The upper entrance was destroyed by a warship," Gamboge replied grimly. "No one else can come down from there. We'll have to make do with saving only the people already here."
Sienna exhaled slowly.
Liberty City had a population of over a hundred thousand. Now, they could save at most ten thousand inside Erythos's rejuvenation space.
"There's nothing more we can do for those who didn't make it here," Sienna said quietly.
They waited in tense silence until Erythos finished her work, drawing the last civilians on the platform into her space.
"Is this everyone?" Erythos asked, scanning the now-empty platform.
"Yes, my Queen," General Bierra replied. "The subway entrance was destroyed. No one could reach us from above."
"Damn."
"Then let's board the train," Sienna said.
A specially prepared evacuation train had been standing by while Erythos worked. The moment her task ended, soldiers began ushering everyone aboard.
Suddenly, a strained voice echoed down the tunnel.
"W–Wait for me!"
Weapons snapped up instantly, and the psychics tensed.
"It must be Mortuum," Isabelline said with relief. "He went to help Damen Dark—he's back."
But as the figure staggered closer, it became clear it wasn't Mortuum.
It was someone familiar.
"Argent?" Sienna stepped forward. "How did you get here?"